Saturday, September 22, 2007

John M. Scalzi's Weekend Assigment #184: From the Top of Mount TBR

Anyone who does a lot of reading know about "Mount TBR": That's the pile of books you have just waiting To Be Read -- the books you want to get to, but haven't yet. This brings us to this week's Weekend Assignment:

Weekend Assignment #184: What books do you want to read - but haven't yet? These could be new books, classic books you've just not gotten around to, books you've bought but haven't cracked the spines of, or a book you want to get but for some reason haven't. The salient characteristic is that you want to read it, but just haven't yet.

Extra credit: Do you usually prefer the book or the movie?

Dear John,

While nowhere near as popular as you on oh, so many levels, I still manage a formidable TBR , in my case, list, as I am too poverty-ridden to be able to purchase too many books ahead. Still, there are a few.

Rachel Caine's Weather Warden series, Books 3,4,5 and 7 – I've actually acquired these, after reading Book 6, Thin Air, which I'd picked up off the rack at Wal-Mart and loved from the beginning.

Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution: The Complete Guide to Achieving Normal Blood Sugars Revised & Updated

The Diabetes Diet: Dr. Bernstein's Low-Carbohydrate Solution (Both recommended by several PWD's I trust)

Thirteen by Richard K. Morgan

You Don't Love Me Yet: A Novel by Jonathan Lethem

Hell's Belles (Hell On Earth: Book 1) by Jackie Kessler

Twilight (Twilight, Book 1) by Stephenie Meyer

Magic or Madness (Magic or Madness Trilogy) by Justine Larbalestier

Pretties (Uglies Trilogy, Book 2) by Scott Westerfeld

Peeps (Bccb Blue Ribbon Fiction Books (Awards)) by Scott Westerfeld

The Pacific Between by Raymond K. Wong

Deadly Errors by Allen Wyler

End in Fire (Roc Science Fiction) by Syne Mitchell

Spin by Robert Charles Wilson

The Rediscovery of Man: The Complete Short Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith by Cordwainer Smith

Norstrilia by Cordwainer Smith

The Crazy Years: Reflections of a Science Fiction Original by Spider Robinson

The Counterfeit Heinlein (Gerald Knave Science Fiction Novels) by Laurence M. Janifer

The Robert Heinlein Interview and Other Heinleiniana by J. Neil Schulman

Fat White Vampire Blues by Andrew Fox

Paddling in Paradise: Sea Kayaking Adventures in Atlantic Canada by Alison Hughes

Kabloona in the Yellow Kayak: One Woman's Journey Through the North West Passage by Victoria Jason

And that's just the books on my Amazon “Wish List”... there are many magazines, catalogs, newsletters and the like that weren't included but are amongst the daily or weekly "must read" piles.

Have a great weekend. All my love to your lovely wife and daughter. Good luck on your progress towards meeting the dread deadlines. I feel for you ... or is that just my iced tea glass I'm feeling for?

wil

Post Scriptus: I almost always prefer the book over a movie made therefrom. However, in the (thankfully rare) case of books made from movies, I have found the books to be sadly lacking. Little more than screenplays stripped of the script formating.

[AUTHOR NOTE: Just click on the link at the top to get a blank copy of this week's question and to have the link to the venue where you post your link to your answers. Don't post it here as only the rarest of cognoscenti ever read the Weekend Assignment here. Too much of an acquired taste, I fear. Something like stewed Monkey's Balls, I'm told...]

3 comments:

Janet said...

I loved the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer!

Call me Paul said...

Mmm, stewed monkey balls.

I see someone's been taking book suggestions from Scalzi. I didn't participate in this week's assignment because I wrote a similar entry about a year ago, and I'm embarrassed to admit that my "mount TBR" stack has not changed by even one volume since.

I was gonna be proud of being called "cognoscenti," but I thought I'd better look it up first.

BRB.

Call me Paul said...

Inflected Form(s): plural co·gno·scen·ti /-tE/
Etymology: obsolete Italian (now conoscente), from cognoscente, adjective, wise, from Latin cognoscent-, cognoscens, present participle of cognoscere
: a person who has expert knowledge in a subject :

Hmmm, maybe I don't belong here. No matter. It's not like you can get rid of me, or anything.